


What's In a Name?

by Peppermint_Magician_Lynn



Category: Ever After High
Genre: F/M, Modern values, Name Changes, Past Relationship(s), marriage talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24595426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peppermint_Magician_Lynn/pseuds/Peppermint_Magician_Lynn
Summary: Just a silly little idea that popped into my head a long time ago, while I was considering the culture around the fairytale society and the family that Daring grew up in.
Relationships: Rosabella Beauty/Daring Charming
Comments: 12
Kudos: 76





	What's In a Name?

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

Rosabella looked up from her book and gave him a smile. “Of course you can.” He’s been staring at her for the better part of an hour, while they been having this calm little walk through the garden. She didn’t hate having his attention on her, but it was a little concerning when he refused to say what was clearly on his mind. “What’s up?”

“Well, I know this is a little unorthodox,” he stared, face reddening, “and usually it isn’t practice to ask these things…but I am really curious.”

“Uh, okay,” Rosabella said hesitantly, setting down her book. “Well, there’s no harm in asking, is there?” Whether or not she’d answer depended on what his “unorthodox” question was.

He gave her a glance and then, looking away, he asked, “I just wanted to know if you’d …picked out my name yet?”

This confused her. “Uh, picked out your…” She was too stunned to finish the question, trying to sort out what he meant. The first thing she could think was, “do you mean, like, a pet name?” Ashlynn and Hunter had pet names for one another; maybe that was what he meant.

Daring chuckled a little, still embarrassed, but shook his head. “No, I mean the name you want to give me when …when we finish our destiny.” He gave a little jump then quickly waved his hands towards her. “That is _if_ we go through with it. No pressure or anything.”

But that wasn’t what Rosabella cared about right now. She put her hands on his to still them then looked him in the eyes. “Daring, what are you talking about? Why would I be giving you a new name?”

“Because it’s tradition?” he said in the form of a question. Like she was the one talking in riddles. “Don’t you know about that?”

“No,” she said honestly. “Explain it to me.”

“Oh. Well, in my family, when a Charming completes their destiny and then they…get married,” his shoulders hunched a little in embarrassment but he soldiered on, “they get a new name.”

“Oh, you mean like a surname.”

“No, I mean a first name. Well, surname too. The whole thing, really.”

Rosabella blinked. “Wait, you mean you change your whole name?”

“No, _I_ don’t change my name. My future princess will change my name.” He slipped a hand out from hers and tapped his chin, thinking. “I remember I once picked up a journal for Apple and caught her trying out some new names for me. She was narrowing down her options between about five different names.”

“Daring…”

“Mind you, all of them started with ‘A’ and I couldn’t picture myself as an ‘Anthony’, though it did have a more heroic sound to it than ‘Archibald.”

“Daring.”

“Which is actually better than the names she used to dream about for our future daughter. Why, she wanted to call her--”

“Daring!”

“No, not...uh, yes?” He finally took note of the very tense look in her eyes and read the sign that she had something important to say.

“Daring, I am not going to change your name.”

Now he was the confused one. “What? Why? I...is it because I mentioned Apple? Because really, it’s not like I was attached to the names or anything—”

She cut him off by lightly placing a hand over his mouth. She smiled. “No, I didn’t mean that as a ‘we aren’t like that’ sort of statement.” Man, did she read him well. “I meant it in a ‘that’s a tradition I would rather not follow’ kind of way.”

“Oh,” Daring mumbled behind her hand and as she released his mouth, he looked aside with an odd expression. Again, Rosabella could read him like one of her favorite books. “Are you disappointed by that?”

“I mean, maybe a little bit,” he admitted. “It’s not that I dislike my birth name or anything. It’s just, I was always told not to be attached to it.”

“Because you were supposed to get it changed.” Daring nodded. “And that never bothered you?”

He shrugged. “People get their names changed all the time when they get married. I didn’t see it as a big thing. Didn’t your dad-?” Rosabella was shaking her head before he even finished asking. “Really? He didn’t?”

“Nope,” she declared. “Mom wouldn’t have it, not for the sake of tradition. She knew how much he missed his human identity and said those traditions were outdated.” She smiled sneakily. “Fun fact, my last name is actually Beauty-Beast. They hyphenated it. But people usually forget or it gets left off of role calls, so most people only know me as Rosabella Beauty.” She rolled her eyes. “And if I'm honest, I think they leave out the ‘Beast’ part on purpose.”

“Wow.” Daring blinked at this news. “I never knew that. I…I’m sorry I didn’t know that. It wasn’t intentional at all.”

She reached to pat his arm. “Hey, it’s okay,” she assured him. She was a little touched he took that so seriously. “Honestly, I got so used to it, I stopped caring a long time ago. I know my name and that’s really what matters to me.”

He smiled, bumping his should against hers. “That sounds like something you would say.”

She nudged him back. “Yeah, well, talking about _marriage_ doesn’t sound very much like you.” She grinned when he started blushing again, trying to turn away in embarrassment. She locked her arms around his shoulders, not letting him escape. “I’d have to say, though, become King Daring Charming-Beauty-Beast might be a little bit of a mouthful for you,” she declared, enjoying his humiliation way too much to feel embarrassed herself. “So maybe we _will_ change that last name, but to something we can _both_ agree on. Okay?”

He didn’t immediately respond, so she gave him an extra push by roughing his hair the same way he would his siblings. “That okay with you?”

It worked. He squirmed in her grasp, trying to throw her hand off his head. “Okay, yes. Just quit it,” he declared, sounding so aggravated even though his smile was obvious. “Stop teasing me already.”

That made her laugh. “That’s a bit hypocritical coming from you.” Though she did let him go, letting him anxiously try to fix his hair without a mirror while she bent to pick up the book she’d knocked to the ground. She gazed around her, glad to see they were still the only ones in the rose garden during recess and hadn’t interrupted anyone else with their racket.

“Come on,” she said, elbowing him lightly as she rose to her feet, sliding her book back into her purse. “I’ve rested my feet enough. We don’t have much longer for that stroll through the garden. Class starts back in an hour.”

He came up to her side and when she offered her hand to him, he grasped it tightly. Rosabella slid the strap of her bag around her free wrist and they continues on their way.

They made it only a few minutes before Rosabella could no longer hold back the urge to tease him just a little bit more. “So, if you were thinking about your own future name,” she asked innocently, feeling through his hand the way he tensed, “does that mean you have ideas for any future children, too?”

She had such a lock on his hand, he didn’t have a hope to run away. And she had all the rest of an hour to torment him on this one. Score one for the Rose Princess.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow. For reference, these two are barely in the boyfriend-girlfriend phase and they are talking about marriage and children? Says quite a bit about the fairytale world, doesn’t it?
> 
> A/N: There is some canon validity to this idea. In both “Dexter’s Story” and “Darling’s story” they mention their grandfather who was formerly known as “Siegfried” but now goes by the name of Auspicious Charming, because he decided to immerse himself in the family of his wife, Alluring Charming. So it seems he changed not just his last name, but also his first. And I thought “is that something that all Charmings go through when they marry or just Daring’s family? Would they get their entire name changed?” It feels plausible when you think about how ten-a-penny Charmings are. They don’t even seem to put that much effort into naming their children. As if they don’t expect them to last. 
> 
> As a person who is very proud of her birth name, the concept of changing names through marriage never appealed to me. And with Rosabella being so modern, I don’t think she’d be cool with that, either. Though that isn’t to say anything mean or judgmental about people who do change their names. It’s a personal choice and I think Rosabella would rather that, if Daring changed his name, it was because he wanted to, not because tradition told him he had to. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!


End file.
